Saturday, March 8, 2014

Obama "respected" by Republicans? Dillard still condemned for saying so

It seems destined to become the campaign ad that will live on -- as in that moment in 2007 when Barack Obama tried to show he has bipartisan political tendencies by including state Sen. Kirk Dillard in a television spot touting himself.

It was brought up again Thursday night when three of the four gubernatorial candidates debated each other at Benedictine Univeristy in suburban Lisle.

CANDIDATE WILLIAM BRADY reminded everybody on hand that Dillard did that spot promoting the GOP's version of "The Great Satan" himself.

How dare he say that Obama, back when he was a state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood, addressed "the deepest issues we had" and "Republican legislators respected Sen. Obama" and "his ability to understand both sides (of issues) would serve the country."

Who'd have thought that a 30-second spot from six years ago would still be talked about today? Who in their right mind would think this ad featuring Dillard and former state Sen. Larry Walsh (remember him?) would ever be interpreted as having much of significance?

But when you're in a campaign in which the front-runner thinks so highly of his chances that he didn't even bother to show up for the latest debate, then you take the chance to grab the moment -- even for something lame like this.

BRADY VS. DILLARD -- which some people thought was to be a rematch of 2010 -- has devolved to being the "Race for Second Place."

This is particularly pathetic because it comes at a time when Dillard finally came up with some campaign cash (less than two weeks before Election Day, compared to the Bruce Rauner campaign that has been inoculating us with its campaign ad propaganda for several months now) to get himself on the air.

Will Dillard ever live down his not-hostile ...

It was just this week that Camp Dillard came up with both television and radio spots that tell us just how wonder Kirk is and how much he cares about the people of Illinois.

While also tossing in a line saying, "Dillard's a conservative Republican who believes in traditional values."

MEANT FOR ALL those people who keep bringing up the Dillard appearance in an Obama ad and want to believe that he's somehow not "One of them."

Not only because it comes across as "Too little, too late," but I wonder how ineffectual these broadcast spots will turn out to be. Although it doesn't help Dillard any that he's all over the place about Obama these days. Who knows what he really thinks! When it comes to television, the president may have given us the image that will linger of Dillard -- even though he has spent every waking moment since then trying to make people believe he can be a "right-wing" as anybody else in politics.

... thoughts about Barack Obama?

Now for anyone who was paying attention to state government back in the 1990s, it isn't much of a shock that Obama and Dillard were friendly.

The future president and current gubernatorial dreamer were part of a group of legislators who spent their off-hours in Springfield playing poker (which is about as close to a sordid story as I know of about Obama's days at the Illinois Statehouse).

REMEMBER BACK TO 2008 when some black people questioned whether or not the biracial Obama was really "black enough" to be considered a black president? Part of the reason for this was because some of his legislative colleagues in the Black Caucus thought Obama was a bit too comfortable amongst white people.

Because he could bring himself to play cards on a regular basis with people like Dillard and state Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan. Writing it out like this makes it seem all the more trivial. But this is the kind of mentality that often determines what political people think of each other, which then spreads out to the electorate.

Obama seems to have overcome this -- he did win, after all. And now there are those who can't envision how anyone could ever have wanted to respect the future president.

Dillard becomes the devil incarnate. Which is just absurd. Although I'm sure he wishes people scouring YouTube these days for "moving pictures" of himself would focus on that tribute Dillard did to now-former Gov. Jim Edgar -- to whom he was once the equivalent of Rahm Emanuel to Barack Obama.

WHICH IS WHY this lame attempt at a campaign issue gets to linger on and on long after that television spot should have withered away into something that only the most pathetic of political geeks would ever bother to look up on YouTube.

Or are you the type more interested in checking out Obama Girl or will.i.am?

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.